Spate of burglaries in East Dulwich

[EastDulwichRose]

I don't want to scare anyone, but just letting people be aware that there has been a spate of house burglaries in and around the Dulwich areas, especially streets off Lordship Lane.

3 of my local friends have have had break-ins 2 in East Dulwich and 1 in Dulwich Village recently.

They were all left shaken and lost sentimental items, which are irreplaceable.

I spoke to the local PCSO and she told me that these professional burglars hit a local area , then move to another, during the day or night. Its disheartening to be told that, apart from leaving a fingerprint or DNA, they get away with it many times over.

So please all be vigilant and do beef up your security! we don't want the burglars/criminals to win!.

[James Barber]

Can you tell me when these 3 burglaries occurred?

I ask as a prolific burglar was caught late August.

Regards james

[tomdhu]

Worrying for sure but this can be alleviated by installing a small safe . You can get one for around ?50 that is slightly larger than a bread bin and is very useful to store jewelry, passports and important documents.

Just fix to a solid wall with two self-tapping Thunderbolts and the jobs done.

Burglars go for the easy pickings. First upstairs to find jewelry and money. They know where to look!

Then they look for mobiles, IPods, and IPads - only things that will go in a backpack

They want to be in and out in less than 5 minutes hence the majority will not bother with a safe.

Worthwhile mentioning also that around 75% of burglars gain access from the rear and these days you can get stand alone motion sensor alarms for a little as ?5 - yes, only ?5 for 110 decibels.

[tomdhu]

Somewhat naive me thinks James, as getting caught these days certainly doesnt mean getting banged up - even for notorious recidivists.

So long as there is no violence involved, the scrotes can get away with a slap on the wrist ( eg community service) which just leaves them free to do it again.

There was one last month from Camberwell who did at least 2 burglaries when he was on bail pending appearance before court.

[lozzyloz]

We received this email from SNT a couple of weeks ago:

"Hi

In the past week we have had a rise in shed burglaries were they have been taking bicycles, this has been round the area of Woodwarde road and Calton avenue. Would you please pass on this information to your neighbours to make them aware of what is happening and to check the security of their sheds and bicycles, if anybody needs any advice just tell them to email or call Village SNT.

Thanks

Tricia"

Do get in touch with your SNT if you need security advice and ask for a copy of the 'How Secure Is Your Home' leaflet that gives good home security tips. It's not complicated and doesn't have to be expensive.

[kermit]

Hi, our house was broken into on Friday during the day - they popped the patio door off its frame to gain access through the back. Laptops, jewelery etc gone. We live on the St Francis Place development. Please be careful - most of the houses will have the same style of patio door.

[EastDulwichRose]

Yes sorry to hear about your break-in 'Kermit' unfortunately its becoming more prevalent, as we are all at work in the daytime, thats why its imperative to spend a bit of money on securing ones premises and giving the burglars a hard time - i was pretty lax with my security until i heard about my friends break-ins. Now i have motion sensor at the back area and motion security lights.

I don't want to alarm anyone, but they do come back after being burgled as they know you have to replace all things that went missing!. I would if i was on ground floor, have metal grilles patio and windows.

'James Barber' in reply to your question, my friends burglaries happened quite recently, in fact 2 weeks ago! It seems like they catch one thief and another one quickly takes their place!. (or many more at large...).

Top notch preventative security is the key i think as well as vigilance.

[dannyjohnson]

Wow!!!!!Shocking news...::o Prevent rogue is must do. http://www.jpopo.info/g.php

[Sue]

EastDulwichRose Wrote:

- we are all at work in the daytime

xxxxxxxx

Some of us are retired, some are unemployed, some are on maternity or sick leave, some work at night :)

[ratty]

Kermit, I have a feeling I have heard of this sad happening (I am Jack's dad so our gardens border each others).

Really sorry about what has happened. More so that in 3 out of the 5 houses in our block, someone is home all day. You probably know that next door to me got done about 4 months ago too.

[sweetgirl]

@ tomdhu..... i don't agree with you totally, i say this because i spoke to my cousin yesterday, he live on stondon park, forest hill..... on the MAIN road. well basically, he got burgled last thursday during the day. they used a crowbar & broke in through TWO front doors... ransacked the house, found the safe along with lots of other cash around the house & made off with it all! they couldn't get into the safe but nevertheless, broke it of the wall & took it as it was! passports, lots of jewellery & loads of cash..... GONE!!!!!

BE CAREFUL GUYS..... HE LOST A GOOD ?50K!

& would you believe, NOBODY saw a thing!!!!!

[tomdhu]

SG,

Statistically, i feel what I said still holds true - particularly about access from the rear. There's a risk about making off with the safe but again it is percentages as the average perpetrators dont always go equipped to achieve this.

You can never be totally safe, but reducing the risk is a really useful investment.

The questions I would ask in this case would be...

1. Was there a functioning alarm at the premises?

2. Were the motice locks on the doors locked?

3. Was the safe in the bedroom?

4. Was the safe properly secured to a brick wall and floor with bolts rather than screws?

5. Would someone other than the family know that there was, as you say, "lots of other cash around the house"?

Let me conclude by saying that I have no connection with the security industry,it's just that I was burgled a long time ago - as a sharer in a basement flat, and thereafter I became determined to reduce the risk of it happening again. So far the measures that I have taken have been effective.

[AnotherPaul]

We were burgled a month ago. The perps made their way in through the back of the house as we'd accidentally left the back door open. The officers who attended said breaking in via the back of a house is now very common and advised to lock your back doors, your sheds, bikes and anything else out back that's worth anything.

Because Our daughter saw the guy, police attended quickly and did catch the guys who'd been in our house just an hour later. Despite one of them having my wife's phone on him it seems it's not all that easy to prosecute. Can't say much else as the police have been pretty rubbish keeping us posted on what's happening with the case. The burglars were known to the Police, one was on bail but whether they'll actually be punished is up in the air.

Almost makes want to start reading the Mail. Almost.

[couture]

A friend of mine was burgled during the day just off Townley Rd on Thursday.

Back door was broken into (glass smashed with shovel taken out of shed), they took recently deceased mothers jewellery, new laptop, tablet and back pack to put it all in, then mysteriously unlocked front door. Door has numerous locks, locked that morning when he left for work but they unlocked with magic key then left front door open. Locksmith says not even master key exist for this lock and now everyone baffled as no spare keys missing.

He was burgled a couple of months ago, through back door and in daylight but police say different people broke in then as they were organised with tools and had a different pattern to the breakin.

My friend is now getting new higher fences, alarm system, had locks changed, and security camera out back.

He has to invest thousands now to secure his home and he doesn't have a house full of objects of value to steel.

The saddest bit is losing his mothers jewellery - she died in the summer and it was only a few pieces of sentimental value.

JUST ANGERS ME.

[lance_elot]

I know how everyone feels about the rise in burglaries, i got done 4 weeks ago.

I was stupid enough not to heed warnings from people that i should use a burglar alarm everytime i go out, even if its popping off to Sainsburys. I just took the dog for a walk as usual in Peckham Rye Park, came back and had the whole flat done over!

My new laptop with precious pics that i had erased the SD card was on there, tools, watches, camera - all gone.. They came in through the back door via the garden alleyway, as i'm an end of terrace house, it was a quiet easy place to get done, out of view from other houses.

I'm now sparing no effort and money into getting CCTV installed, PIR floodlights and a floor bolted safe! - i learnt the hard way, i was complacent with my security and paid the price.

[tomdhu]

Have PM'd you.

[Sue]

lance_elot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> My new laptop with precious pics that i had erased

> the SD card was on there,

xxxxxxx

I'm so sorry to hear all this, but just to mention, you can get stuff on your laptop (including photos) automatically backed up without even having to think about it. I use Carbonite but there are other providers.

It costs about ?35 a year (I think - that might have been an introductory offer) and I consider it's worth it for peace of mind.

If your laptop/PC loses all the data or is stolen, or if you get a new laptop, you can just download all the data again from Carbonite.

It takes ages to upload all the stuff in the first place, especially if you have a lot of music or photos, but once the initial upload is done the ongoing automatic backup is quick.

You can get a fifteen day free trial (don't have to give credit card details) but I don't think the trial period includes music.

More information here

[Nero]

Two mortice locks and a functioning alarm, as well as window locks and as near total vigilance as is possible are the best ways ways to keep burglars at bay. Don't think it won't happen to you? Why shouldn't it? Burglars go for easy options like a lot of people, so make it hard for them.

[Prunella_Gatsby]

Its all to common now with burglaries.... people out or away and the criminals jump in!

Very sad to hear things like this happening, especially where children are affected directly. I guess people must be vigilant and secure their properties and possessions even more so.

[Johnny&Emma]

Add us to the list :-(

No obvious entry point. Large knife dropped in the hallway turned my stomach...

Laptops & camera gone. Everything rummaged through and on the floor.

Could have been worse I suppose.

We're on Friern Rd.

[Sue]

:-S

[Marie81]

A house on my Mums road was broken into a few weeks ago on a Sunday night whilst they were asleep upstairs. They pulled up outside about 3am and broke in through the front door and grabbed what they could, the wife heard a noise and ran downstairs and saw the flashlight of the burgular who ran back out the front door and drove off!

Also my partner was pulled over by the police last night, they wanted to check he owned the car he was driving as apparently there has been an increase of houses being broken into in the area where they are looking for the car keys. So don't leave any car keys laying around. We always hide our keys and have a London bar installed on the front door which makes it impossible to kick in. We also have an alarm and a guard dog.

It's horrible being broken into, when I lived at my parents we were broken into and they took everything valuable they could find even sentimental stuff that wouldn't be worth a penny...I was distraught. That experience made me really security conscious, I even alarm the house when the dogs are home alone and we have motion sensor alarms in the garden plus barbed wire along the fence probably a bit over the top but makes me feel safe :)

[dimples]

ive just bumped into my friend who lives nr cafe nero and they were broken into last night and they not only were burgled but their car was taken aswell . this is getting really crazy , I was done on the 2nd of september in the afternoon and only last week I picked up my daughter from just of underhill rd and their neighbours had been done the night before !

[AnotherPaul]

It's no surprise that some many house are being burgled. The CPS have just informed us that they're not prosecuting a man who was arrested lying under a car in ED, with my wife's phone in his pocket just one hour after we reported our burglary.

If that snide git who did our house had peacefully invaded Fortum and Mason's he's be looking at court. However, he entered our home at night, lifted money and a phone and left my daughter (who saw him) upset for days. For that he gets nothing. He must be pissing himself with laughter, at the Police who so keenly arrested him, and at everyone who's ever been burgled and would like criminals who get caught to be prosecuted.

The CPS are sending out completely the wrong message with this kind of decision. It flies in the face of our government's public statements on crime. They'd like us to believe they're into protecting us against criminals. They're not. It's just words. And disgraceful, pathetic lying words too.

If you own stuff and you live in London expect to have it stolen and don't expect justice.

[Sue]

AnotherPaul Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's no surprise that some many house are being

> burgled. The CPS have just informed us that

> they're not prosecuting a man who was arrested

> lying under a car in ED, with my wife's phone in

> his pocket just one hour after we reported our

> burglary.

>

xxxxxxx

Have they give a reason for not prosecuting?

Usually if the CPS don't prosecute it's because they don't think there's a high enough chance of a case succeeding, eg not enough evidence, I thought?